Printout delivery system and method using mobile device

ABSTRACT

A server is to obtain, from a mobile device, information indicating a content, sender information about a sender for a printing of the content and delivery of the printed content, and receiver information about a receiver of the printed content. The server is to convert the content into printable data of the content and perform a process to print and deliver a printed content to the receiver according to a printing of the printable data of the content to the printed content and a delivery of the printed content to the receiver.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application is a continuation application of U.S. application Ser.No. 15/485,566, filed Apr. 12, 2017, which claims the benefit of KoreanPatent Application No. 10-2016-0048168, filed on Apr. 20, 2016, in theKorean Intellectual Property Office, the disclosures of all of which areincorporated herein in their entirety by reference.

BACKGROUND 1. Field

One or more embodiments relate to a system and method for printingcontents stored in a mobile device of a user, and delivering printoutsto a receiver by using a delivery server.

2. Description of the Related Art

Image forming devices include individual devices such as printers,scanners, and facsimiles, and multi-function printers (MFPs) in whichvarious functions of different devices are integrated into one device.Currently, such image forming devices include a wired communicationmodule, e.g., an Ethernet module, or a wireless communication module,e.g., a Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi), Wi-Fi Direct, Near FieldCommunication (NFC), Bluetooth, Zigbee, or Infrared Data Association(IrDA) module, and thus may be connected to a cloud server and a userdevice such as a mobile device or a laptop computer through a network.In addition, contents stored in a mobile device may be rendered withoutusing an image forming device driver by using a cloud server, and may beprinted by using an image forming device connected to the cloud server.

SUMMARY

One or more embodiments include a system and method for printingcontents stored in a mobile device of a user, and delivering printoutsto a receiver by using a delivery server.

One or more embodiments include a non-transitory computer-readablerecording medium having recorded thereon a computer program forexecuting the method.

Additional aspects will be set forth in part in the description whichfollows and, in part, will be apparent from the description, or may belearned by practice of the presented embodiments.

According to one or more embodiments, a method of transmitting contentsstored in a mobile device includes displaying a list of the contents ona display screen, receiving a user input for selecting content to beprinted, on the display screen, displaying a list of printers capable ofprinting the selected content, and a ‘send to delivery server’ item onthe display screen, transmitting the content to a cloud server based ona user input for selecting the ‘send to delivery server’ item on thedisplay screen, displaying a printing cost of the content on the displayscreen while the content is being converted into print data by the cloudserver, receiving payment information of the printing cost and receiverinformation of a printout of the content, and transmitting the paymentinformation and the receiver information to the cloud server.

According to one or more embodiments, a mobile device includes acommunicator, a display, an input unit, a processor electricallyconnected to the communicator, the display, and the input unit, and amemory electrically connected to the processor, wherein, when the memoryoperates, the processor stores instructions for displaying a list ofcontents stored in the memory, on a display screen of the display,receiving a user input for selecting content, through the input unit,displaying a list of printers capable of printing the selected content,and a ‘send to delivery server’ item on the display screen, transmittingthe content to a cloud server through the communicator based on a userinput for selecting the ‘send to delivery server’ item on the displayscreen, displaying a printing cost of the content on the display screenwhile the content is being converted into print data by the cloudserver, receiving payment information of the printing cost and receiverinformation of a printout of the content, and transmitting the paymentinformation and the receiver information to the cloud server.

According to one or more embodiments, a method of transmitting contentsby a cloud server includes receiving content transmitted from at leastone mobile device, converting the content to a format corresponding to adelivery server and generating a converted content file, providinginformation about a printing cost of the content to the mobile device,receiving receiver information of a printout of the content from themobile device, generating a print information file of the content basedon the receiver information, and transmitting the print information fileand the converted content file to the delivery server.

According to one or more embodiments, a non-transitory computer-readablerecording medium has recorded thereon computer instructions forexecuting a method of transmitting contents by a mobile device, themethod including displaying a list of the contents on a display screen,receiving a user input for selecting content to be printed, on thedisplay screen, displaying a list of printers capable of printing theselected content, and a ‘send to delivery server’ item on the displayscreen, transmitting the content to a cloud server based on a user inputfor selecting the ‘send to delivery server’ item on the display screen,displaying a printing cost of the content on the display screen whilethe content is being converted into print data by the cloud server,receiving payment information of the printing cost and receiverinformation of a printout of the content, and transmitting the paymentinformation and the receiver information to the cloud server.

According to one or more embodiments, a non-transitory computer-readablerecording medium has recorded thereon computer instructions forexecuting a method of transmitting contents by a cloud server, themethod including receiving content transmitted from at least one mobiledevice, converting the content to a format corresponding to a deliveryserver, providing information about a printing cost of the content tothe mobile device, receiving receiver information of a printout of thecontent from the mobile device, generating print information of thecontent based on the receiver information, and transmitting the printinformation and the converted content to the delivery server.

According to one or more embodiments, a method of transmitting contentsstored in a mobile device, to a delivery server includes displaying alist of the contents on a display screen, receiving a user input forselecting content to be printed, on the display screen, displaying alist of printers capable of printing the selected content, and a ‘sendto delivery server’ item on the display screen, transmitting the contentto a cloud server based on a user input for selecting the ‘send todelivery server’ item on the display screen, receiving the content fromthe cloud server, converting the content to a format corresponding tothe delivery server and generating a converted content file, providing ascreen image for requesting payment of a printing cost of the content,to the mobile device while the content is being converted, receivingpayment information and receiver information of a printout of thecontent, from the mobile device, transmitting the payment informationand the receiver information to the cloud server, generating a printinformation file of the content based on the receiver information by thecloud server, and transmitting the print information file and theconverted content file to the delivery server.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

These and/or other aspects will become apparent and more readilyappreciated from the following description of the embodiments, taken inconjunction with the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a diagram for describing printout delivery services using adelivery server, according to an embodiment;

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a printout delivery service providingsystem using a delivery server, according to an embodiment;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a mobile device of a system according to anembodiment;

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a cloud server of a system according to anembodiment;

FIGS. 5A to 5H are graphic user interface (GUI) screen images of amobile device, according to an embodiment;

FIG. 6 is a flowchart of a process of selecting content to be printedand transmitting the content to a cloud server by the mobile device,according to an embodiment;

FIG. 7 is a flowchart of a process of generating print data andtransmitting the print data to a delivery server by a server, accordingto an embodiment;

FIG. 8 is a diagram for describing a process of converting contentstored in a mobile device, into print data and transmitting the printdata to a delivery server by a cloud server; and

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing examples of mail information files generatedby a cloud server.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Hereinafter, various embodiments will be described in detail withreference to the attached drawings.

The embodiments may, however, be embodied in many different forms andshould not be construed as being limited to specific embodiments setforth herein; rather, these embodiments covers various modifications,equivalents and/or alternatives.

In the drawings, like reference numerals denote like elements.

In this specification, the expression “include”, “may include”,“comprise”, or “may comprise” indicates the presence of a feature (e.g.,a numerical value, a function, an operation, or an element such as apart) and does not exclude the presence of an additional feature.

The expression “A or B”, “at least one of A or/and B”, or “one or moreof A or/and B” may include all possible combinations of the listeditems. For example, “A or B”, “at least one of A and B”, or “at leastone of A or B” may refer to all cases in which (1) at least one A isincluded, (2) at least one B is included, and (3) at least one A and atleast one B are both included.

The expressions such as “first”, “second”, “1^(st)”, and “2^(nd)” usedherein may refer to various different elements irrespective of the orderand/or priority thereof, and are merely used to distinguish one elementfrom another without limiting the elements. For example, “a first userdevice” and “a second user device” may indicate different user devicesirrespective of the order or priority thereof. Specifically, a firstelement may be referred to as a second element and, similarly, a secondelement may be referred to as a first element without departing from thescope of the disclosure.

It will be understood that, when an element (e.g., a first element) isreferred to as being “(operatively or communicatively) coupled with/to”or “connected to” another element (e.g., a second element), the elementcan be coupled or connected to the other element directly or throughanother element (e.g., a third element). On the contrary, it will beunderstood that, when an element (e.g., a first element) is referred toas being “directly coupled to” or “directly connected to” anotherelement (e.g., a second element), another element (e.g., a thirdelement) does not exist therebetween.

The expression “configured to” used herein may be interchangeably usedwith, for example, “suitable for”, “having the capacity to”, “designedto”, “adapted to”, “made to”, or “capable of” as necessary. The term“configured to” does not always imply “specifically designed to” in ahardware manner. Rather, in some cases, the expression “a deviceconfigured to” may imply that the device is “capable of” somethingtogether with other devices or parts. For example, “a processorconfigured to perform A, B, and C” may imply a dedicated processor(e.g., an embedded processor) for performing the operations or ageneric-purpose processor (e.g., a central processing unit (CPU) or anapplication processor) capable of performing the operations by executingone or more software programs stored in a memory device.

Terms used herein are used to describe specific embodiments, and are notintended to limit the scope of other embodiments. Singular forms areintended to include plural forms as well, unless the context clearlyindicates otherwise. Unless defined differently, all terms used in thedescription including technical and scientific terms have the samemeaning as generally understood by one of ordinary skill in the art.Terms as defined in a commonly used dictionary should be construed ashaving the same meaning as in an associated technical context, andunless defined in the description, the terms are not ideally orexcessively construed as having formal meaning. In some cases, eventerms defined in this specification cannot be construed to exclude theembodiments.

An electronic device according to various embodiments may be, forexample, a smartphone, a personal computer (PC), or a television (TV).However, the electronic device is not limited to the above-mentioneddevices and may include new electronic devices based on development oftechnologies.

An electronic device according to various embodiments will now bedescribed with reference to the attached drawings. In thisspecification, the term “user” may refer to a person who uses theelectronic device or a device which uses the electronic device (e.g., anartificial intelligence (AI) electronic device).

FIG. 1 is a diagram for describing printout delivery services using adelivery server, according to an embodiment.

Referring to FIG. 1, a screen image 11 showing categories of contentsmay be displayed on a display of a mobile device. For example, ‘photo’,‘document’, ‘web’, ‘e-mail’, and ‘camera’ items indicating thecategories of the contents stored in memory may be displayed on thedisplay of the mobile device. The mobile device may classify thecontents into the categories to provide print data optimized for eachcategory. When a user selects a category of contents, or content desiredto be printed, a screen image 13 showing printers capable of printingthe selected content, and a ‘receive by mail’ item may be displayed onthe display. The ‘receive by mail’ item indicates to transmit print datato a delivery server of, for example, a post office or a parcel serviceprovider, and a printing process may be performed via the deliveryserver. According to another embodiment, the delivery server maytransmit the print data to a server of a printing company, and theprinting process may be performed by the printing company. The deliveryserver may be a server for providing mail services or parcel services,and may classify and deliver mail or parcels.

When the user selects one of the displayed printers, the print data ofthe content stored in the mobile device may be transmitted to theselected printer and printed by the printer to produce a printout. Forexample, when the user selects a ‘Lee Sunsin's printer’ item, thecontent may be printed by Lee Sunsin's printer. Throughout thisspecification, the printout denotes paper on which the content has beenprinted.

When the user selects the ‘receive by mail’ item, a screen image 15 forinputting receiver information of the printout may be displayed on thedisplay to deliver the printout. The receiver information may include aphone number and an address of a receiver. When the user completelyinputs the receiver information, a screen image 17 for requestingpayment may be displayed on the display.

According to another embodiment, information pre-stored by the user maybe automatically input as the receiver information.

The screen image 17 for requesting payment may be transmitted from acloud server. Payment information input by the user may be transmittedvia the cloud server to a payment server. When a payment process iscompleted, the print data may be transmitted via the cloud server to thedelivery server and the printout may be delivered to the receiver.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a printout delivery service providingsystem using a delivery server 51, according to an embodiment.

Referring to FIG. 2, a smartphone 21, a tablet 23, a laptop computer 25,a cloud server 31, a payment server 41, the delivery server 51, and aprinting company server 53 are illustrated. The smartphone 21, thetablet 23, and the laptop computer 25 may be mobile devices. The mobiledevices may have a mobile communication function and are not limited tothe above-mentioned devices. The mobile devices use a well-known mobilecommunication technology such as second generation (2G) mobilecommunication, third generation (3G) mobile communication, or fourthgeneration (4G) mobile communication, and have a phone call function.

In particular, a unique phone number is assigned to each of portablemobile devices such as smartphones or tablet devices by mobile carriers,and thus the portable mobile devices are identified.

The cloud server 31 may manage content transmitted from the mobiledevice 21, 23, or 25 and render the content to a print data format orconvert the content to a format corresponding to the delivery server 51.The cloud server 31 may receive contents of various formats and convertthe contents to the format corresponding to the delivery server 51.Since the delivery server 51 may support only a certain format, thecloud server 31 should convert the content transmitted from the mobiledevice 21, 23, or 25, to the format corresponding to the delivery server51. For example, when the delivery server 51 supports only a portabledocument format (pdf), the cloud server 31 converts the contenttransmitted from the mobile device 21, 23, or 25, to the pdf format, andtransmits the converted content to the delivery server 51. The contenttransmitted from the mobile device 21, 23, or 25 may include, forexample, a photo, a document, or a webpage. The cloud server 31 mayconvert the content transmitted from the mobile device 21, 23, or 25, tothe pdf format irrespective of the category of the content, and transmitthe converted content to the delivery server 51. The content convertedto the pdf format may be print data.

When the cloud server 31 converts the content transmitted from themobile device 21, 23, or 25, to the pdf format and transmits theconverted content to the delivery server 51, the cloud server 31 maycollect and transmit the print data at one time in a certain time cycle.For example, the cloud server 31 may transmit the print data to thedelivery server 51 once every ten minutes. That is, the cloud server 31may collect the print data accumulated for ten minutes and transmit thecollected print data to the delivery server 51 at one time.

The cloud server 31 may convert the content transmitted from the mobiledevice 21, 23, or 25, into the print data (pdf format) and generate theprint data as a file. In this case, a name of the file may include, forexample, information about a time when the file is generated.

The cloud server 31 transmits the generated print data file and a printinformation file of the print data file, to the delivery server 51. Theprint information file may include sender (user) information andreceiver information. The sender information may include a phone numberand an address of a sender of a printout. When the printout is deliveredby mail, the sender information may be necessary to return the printout.The receiver information may include a phone number and an address of areceiver of the printout. The delivery server 51 may make the printoutdelivered to the address of the receiver, with reference to the printinformation file. One print information file may be generated for eachprint data file, but the print information file is not limited thereto.The print information file may include information about the print datafile (e.g., a print data file name).

The payment server 41 may receive payment information required to pay acost of producing the printout, from the user and perform a paymentprocess. When the user selects a ‘send by mail’ item, the payment server41 may generate a screen image for requesting payment information andtransmit the screen image via the cloud server 31 to the mobile device21, 23, or 25 to display the payment information on a display of themobile device 21, 23, or 25. The payment server 41 may perform thepayment process by using the payment information transmitted from themobile device 21, 23, or 25. When the payment process is completed, thepayment server 41 may transmit payment completion information to thecloud server 31 such that the cloud server 31 may transmit the printdata to the delivery server 51.

The delivery server 51 obtains the printout by printing the print datatransmitted from the cloud server 31. Alternatively, the delivery server51 may transmit the print data to the printing company server 53 and theprinting company server 53 may produce the printout by using the printdata.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a mobile device of a system according to anembodiment.

Referring to FIG. 3, the mobile device includes a processor 210, acommunicator 220, a memory 230, an input unit 250, and a display 260. InFIG. 3, descriptions are given of only hardware components related tothe current embodiment to avoid making technical features of the currentembodiment unclear. It will be understood by one of ordinary skill inthe art that the mobile device may further include generic-purposehardware components other than the hardware components illustrated inFIG. 3.

The processor 210 is a hardware component for controlling overalloperations and functions of the mobile device. The processor 210 may,for example, control one or more other components of the mobile deviceand/or perform communication-related operation or data processing.

In particular, the processor 210 may be electrically connected to thecommunicator 220, the display 260, the input unit 250, and the memory230 to display content to be printed, on the display 260 by loading aninstruction stored in the memory 230, to receive a user input forselecting the content to be printed, through the input unit 250, todisplay a list of printers and a delivery server capable of printing theselected content, on the display 260, to transmit the content throughthe communicator to a cloud server based on a user input for selectingthe delivery server on the display 260, to display a printing cost ofthe content on the display 260, and to display a screen image forinputting sender information about a sender who transmits the contentand receiver information about a receiver who receives a printout of thecontent, on the display 260.

The memory 230 may include a volatile memory and/or a non-volatilememory. The memory 230 may store, for example, instructions or datarelated to one or more other components of the mobile device. Accordingto an embodiment, the memory 230 may store software and/or programs.

The display 260 may include, for example, a liquid crystal display(LCD), a light-emitting diode (LED) display, an organic light-emittingdiode (OLED) display, a microelectromechanical system (MEMS) display, oran electronic paper display. The display 260 may display, for example,various contents (e.g., text, images, videos, icons, and/or symbols) toa user. The display 260 may include a touch screen and receive, forexample, touch, gesture, proximity, or hovering inputs using anelectronic pen or a body part of the user.

The communicator 220 may establish communication between, for example,the mobile device and an external device or a server. For example, thecommunicator 220 may be connected to a network through wirelesscommunication or wired communication to communicate with the externaldevice or the server.

The wireless communication may include, for example, cellularcommunication using at least one of Long Term Evolution (LTE), LTEAdvanced (LTE-A), Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA), Wideband CDMA(WCDMA), Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), WirelessBroadband (WiBro), and Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM).According to an embodiment, the wireless communication may include atleast one of, for example, Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi), Bluetooth,Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), Zigbee, Near Field Communication (NFC),Magnetic Secure Transmission, Radio Frequency (RF), and Body AreaNetwork (BAN).

The wired communication may include at least one of, for example,Universal Serial Bus (USB), High Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI),Recommended Standard 232 (RS-232), Power Line Communication, and PlainOld Telephone Service (POTS). The network may include atelecommunications network including at least one of, for example, acomputer network (e.g., a local area network (LAN) or a wide areanetwork (WAN)), the Internet, and a telephone network.

According to various embodiments, some or all operations performed bythe mobile device may be performed by the server. According to anembodiment, when the mobile device should perform certain functions orservices automatically or based on a request, instead of or in additionto autonomously performing the functions or services, the mobile devicemay request the server to perform at least some functions relatedthereto. The server may perform the requested functions or additionalfunctions, and transmit results thereof to the mobile device. The mobiledevice may provide the requested functions or services by using or byadditionally processing the received results. To this end, for example,cloud computing, distributed computing, or client-server computing maybe used.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a cloud server of a system according to anembodiment.

Referring to FIG. 4, the cloud server may include a processor 301, acommunicator 303, and a memory 305. Operations and functions of thecommunicator 303 and the memory 305 are the same as those of thecomponents of the mobile device described above in relation to FIG. 3,and thus detailed descriptions thereof are not provided herein.

The processor 301 may receive content transmitted from a mobile device,render the content, i.e., convert the content to a format correspondingto a delivery server, provide information about a printing cost of thecontent, to the mobile device, receive sender information and receiverinformation of a printout of the content from the mobile device,generate print information of the content based on the senderinformation and the receiver information, and transmit the printinformation and the converted content to the delivery server.

FIGS. 5A to 5H are graphic user interface (GUI) screen images of amobile device, according to an embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart of a process of selecting content to be printedand transmitting the content to a cloud server by the mobile device,according to an embodiment.

Referring to FIGS. 5A to 5H, and 6, a mobile device displays a screenimage 501 on a display in operation 601. The screen image 501 mayinclude a list of contents or thumbnail images corresponding to thecontents. When a user selects content 503 to be printed, on the screenimage 501, the content 503 may be visually distinguishably displayed.For example, the selected content 503 may be displayed with a differentcolor or with a check mark. When the user selects the content 503 to beprinted and touches a send button 505 shown on the screen image 501, ascreen image 511 is displayed on the display.

The mobile device may display a printer item for selecting a printer toperform a printing process, and a ‘send to post office’ item 513 on thedisplay in operation 603. The screen image 511 may include a list ofprinters 515 capable of printing the content, and the ‘send to postoffice’ item 513.

When the user selects one of the printers 515 shown on the screen image511, print data of the content may be transmitted to the selectedprinter. The mobile device may transmit the content to the cloud serverbased on a user input for selecting a delivery server, in operation 607.

The mobile device may display a printing cost of the content on thedisplay in operation 609. For example, when the user selects the ‘sendto post office’ item 513 on the screen image 511, a screen image 521 maybe displayed on the display. The screen image 521 may show a total cost523 and an icon 525 capable of showing details about the printing cost.When the user touches the icon 525, details 527 about the printing costmay be displayed on the display. The details 527 about the printing costmay distinguishably show printing costs per page for color printing andblack-and-white printing.

According to another embodiment, the screen image 521 may show a menufor selecting one of delivery speeds, and charges corresponding thereto.To select the delivery speed, in the case of, for example, maildelivery, a ‘standard mail’ item and an ‘express mail’ item, and chargescorresponding thereto may be shown on the screen image 521. According toanother embodiment, charges differently set based on distances todestinations may be shown on the screen image 521.

When the user inputs payment information, a screen image 531 may bedisplayed. The screen image 531 may be a screen image for inputtingsender information. For example, the sender information may include aname, a phone number, and an address of a sender of a printout. When thesender information is input, the mobile device may display a screenimage 541 for inputting receiver information, on the display. Thereceiver information may include a name, a phone number, and an addressof a receiver of the printout.

When the user inputs the receiver information and touches a paymentbutton 543, the mobile device may display a screen image 551 forrequesting payment, on the display. The screen image 551 for requestingpayment may be provided from a payment server to the cloud server, andthe cloud server may transmit the screen image 551 to the mobile device.The mobile device receives payment information of the printing cost, andtransmits the payment information via the cloud server to the paymentserver, in operation 611. The payment server performs a payment processby using the payment information transmitted from the mobile device. Thescreen image 551 for payment may include a graphic object for inputtinga phone number of the user. When the payment process is completed, themobile device may display a screen image 561 including a message 563indicating that the payment process is completed, on the display. Inaddition, the mobile device may display a screen image 571 includingprint status information indicating whether printing was completed, onthe display.

While the sender information, the receiver information, and the paymentinformation are being input, the cloud server converts the contenttransmitted from the mobile device, to a format corresponding to thedelivery server. For example, while the payment information and printoutdelivery information are being input on the mobile device, the cloudserver may convert the content transmitted from the mobile device, to apdf format, and generate the converted content as a file. When a paymentprocess is completed by using the mobile device, the mobile device maydisplay print data information 573 (e.g., a print data file name) of thecontent on the display in association with the cloud server.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart of a process of generating print data andtransmitting the print data to a delivery server by a cloud server,according to an embodiment.

Referring to FIG. 7, the cloud server receives content transmitted froma mobile device, in operation 701. The cloud server may receive thecontent from a plurality of mobile devices. The cloud server may convertthe content to a format corresponding to the delivery server, inoperation 703. The content transmitted from the mobile device may havevarious formats. For example, the formats may include image formats,text formats, and html formats. The cloud server may convert the contenttransmitted from the mobile device and having various formats, to a pdfformat corresponding to the delivery server, generate the convertedcontent as a file, and provide a file name.

The cloud server may provide information about a printing cost of thecontent to the mobile device in operation 705. The cloud server mayreceive payment information from a payment gateway and provide thepayment information to the mobile device. According to anotherembodiment, the cloud server may autonomously generate and provide thepayment information to the mobile device irrespective of the paymentgateway. The payment information may include detailed information aboutthe printing cost. For example, information about a printing cost perpage, a black-and-while printing cost, and a color printing cost may bedistinguishably displayed.

The cloud server may receive sender information and receiver informationof a printout of the content in operation 707. The sender informationmay include a name, a phone number, and an address of a sender. Thereceiver information may include a name, a phone number, and an addressof a receiver.

The cloud server may generate print information of the content based onthe sender information and the receiver information input on the mobiledevice by a user, in operation 709. The print information of the contentmay include the sender information, the receiver information, and thefile name of the print data.

The cloud server may transmit the print information generated inoperation 709, and the converted content to the delivery server inoperation 711. The converted content may be the print data and may begenerated as an individual file provided with a file name. The printinformation may include the file name of the converted content, and thedelivery server may search for data to be printed, by using the filename included in the print information.

FIG. 8 is a diagram for describing a process of converting contentselected on a mobile device, into print data and transmitting the printdata to a delivery server by a cloud server.

When content to be printed is selected (operation 801), the mobiledevice transmits the content to the cloud server (operation 803). Thecloud server converts the received content to a format corresponding tothe delivery server, and generates the converted content as a file(operation 805). That is, the cloud server converts the received contentinto print data and generates the print data as a file. The generatedfile may be transmitted to the delivery server together with a printinformation file in operation 823.

While the cloud server is converting the content into the print data, apayment process may be performed by using the mobile device.

The cloud server generates a payment information screen image (operation807), and transmits the payment information screen image to the mobiledevice (operation 809). The mobile device displays the paymentinformation screen image on a display (operation 811). According toanother embodiment, the payment information screen image may betransmitted from a payment server.

The mobile device displays a sender information and receiver informationinput screen image on the display (operation 813), and receives senderinformation and receiver information from a user (operation 815). Themobile device transmits the sender information and the receiverinformation to the cloud server (operation 817), and the cloud serverreceives the sender information and the receiver information (operation819). The cloud server transmits payment information to the paymentserver (operation 820), and the payment server performs a paymentprocess (operation 821). To perform the payment process, the paymentserver may transmit a payment confirmation request screen image via thecloud server to the mobile device, and the user may input paymentconfirmation information on the display of the mobile device, therebycompleting the payment process. When the payment process is completed,the cloud server generates a print information file by using the senderinformation and the receiver information transmitted from the mobiledevice, and a name of the print data file generated in operation 805 (inoperation 822). That is, the print information file may include thesender information, the receiver information, and the print data filename. The cloud server transmits the print information file generated inoperation 822 and the print data file generated in operation 805, to thedelivery server (operation 823).

The delivery server receives the print information file (operation 825),obtains the print data file with reference to the print data file nameincluded in the print information file, and transmits the print datafile to a printing company to produce a printout. The produced printoutmay be delivered to a receiver indicated by the receiver informationincluded in the print information file.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing examples of mail information files generatedby a cloud server.

Referring to FIG. 9, print information files 901 and 911, and print datafiles 921 and 931 are illustrated.

The print information files 901 and 911 may include sender information903 and 913, receiver information 905 and 915, print data file names 907and 917, and other information 909 and 919. The other information 909and 919 may include, for example, dates when the print information files901 and 911 are generated.

The cloud server may generate the print information files 901 and 911and provide file names 908 and 918 to the generated print informationfiles 901 and 911.

The file names 908 and 918 may be provided by using, for example, datesand times when the print information files 901 and 911 are generated.The print information files 901 and 911 may be text-format files. Forexample, the print information file 901 may be a text file in which thesender information 903, the receiver information 905, the print datafile name 907, and the other information 909 are separated bypre-defined separators.

The print data files 921 and 931 are files obtained by convertingcontents transmitted from a mobile device, to a format corresponding toa delivery server. For example, the print data files 921 and 931 may bepdf-format files 923 and 933.

According to the above description, since contents stored in a mobiledevice such as a smartphone or a tablet may be transmitted to a cloudserver and the cloud server may print the contents and deliver printoutsto a receiver by using a delivery server, even when a user does not havea printer, the user may obtain desired printouts and make the printoutsdelivered to a desired receiver. In particular, since contents to beprinted may be easily selected and a payment process may be easilyperformed by using the mobile device, printouts of desired contents maybe delivered to a desired receiver without restrictions in time andspace.

Meanwhile, the afore-described embodiments can be written as computerprograms and can be implemented in general-use digital computers thatexecute the programs using a non-transitory computer-readable recordingmedium. Also, the data structure used in the embodiments can be recordedon a non-transitory computer-readable recording medium via variousmeans. Examples of the non-transitory computer-readable recording mediuminclude magnetic storage media (e.g., ROM, floppy disks, hard disks,etc.), optical recording media (e.g., CD-ROMs, or DVDs), etc.

It should be understood that embodiments described herein should beconsidered in a descriptive sense only and not for purposes oflimitation. Descriptions of features or aspects within each embodimentshould typically be considered as available for other similar featuresor aspects in other embodiments.

While one or more embodiments have been described with reference to thefigures, it will be understood by those of ordinary skill in the artthat various changes in form and details may be made therein withoutdeparting from the spirit and scope of the disclosure as defined by thefollowing claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A server, comprising: a processor; and a memoryto store instructions which when executed by the processor cause theprocessor to, obtain, from a mobile device, information indicating acontent, sender information about a sender for a printing of the contentand delivery of the printed content, and receiver information about areceiver of the printed content; perform a conversion of the contentinto printable data of the content; perform a process to print anddeliver a printed content to the receiver according to a printing of theprintable data to the printed content and a delivery of the printedcontent to the receiver.
 2. The server according to claim 1, wherein theprocessor is to, generate print information indicating a filecorresponding to the printable data, the sender information and thereceiver information; and the process to print and deliver the printedcontent is based upon the print information.
 3. The server according toclaim 2, wherein the process to print and deliver the printed contentincludes transmission of the print information and the printable data toother server.
 4. The server according to claim 3, wherein the printabledata is in a format corresponding to the other server.
 5. The serveraccording to claim 1, wherein the processor is to, before the conversionof the content into the printable data, cause a transmission, to themobile device, of cost information indicating at least a cost of theprinting of the printed content or the delivery of the printed contentto the receiver, to obtain payment information from the mobile device inresponse to the cost information.
 6. The server according to claim 4,wherein the transmission, to the mobile device, of the cost information,includes generation of display screen information indicating the costinformation and transmitting the display screen information to themobile device to display a screen image to obtain the paymentinformation.
 7. The server according to claim 5, wherein to obtain, fromthe mobile device, the payment information, the processor is to causegeneration of display screen information for input of the sender andreceiver information, and for input of the payment information,resulting from a selection of the cost information, and transmitting thedisplay screen information to the mobile device to display a screenimage to obtain the payment information.
 8. A non-transitorycomputer-readable recording medium having recorded thereon instructionswhich when executed by a processor cause the processor to: generate adisplay screen on a mobile device for a selection of a content from alist of contents; generate a display screen on the mobile device for aselection of a printing of the content to a printed content and deliveryof the printed content to a receiver; cause the mobile device totransmit to a server information indicating the content, senderinformation about a sender for the printing and delivery of the printedcontent, and receiver information about the receiver of the printedcontent; cause the server to perform a conversion of the content intoprintable data of the content; cause the server to perform a process toprint and deliver a printed content to the receiver according to aprinting of the printable data to the printed content and a delivery ofthe printed content to the receiver.
 9. The non-transitory computerreadable medium according to claim 8, wherein the instructions cause theprocessor to: cause the server to generate print information indicatinga file corresponding to the printable data, the sender information andthe receiver information; and the process to print and deliver theprinted content is based upon the print information.
 10. Thenon-transitory recording medium according to claim 9, wherein theprocess to print and deliver the printed content includes transmissionof the print information and the printable data to other server.
 11. Thenon-transitory recording medium according to claim 10, wherein theprintable data of the content is in a format corresponding to the otherserver.
 12. The non-transitory recording medium according to claim 8,wherein the instructions cause the processor to, before the conversionof the content into the printable data, cause the server to transmit, tothe mobile device, cost information indicating at least a cost of theprinting of the printed content or the delivery of the printed contentto the receiver, to obtain payment information from the mobile device inresponse to the cost information.
 13. The non-transitory recordingmedium according to claim 12, wherein the transmission, to the mobiledevice, of the cost information, includes generation of display screeninformation indicating the cost information and transmitting the displayscreen information to the mobile device to display a screen image toobtain the payment information.
 14. The non-transitory recording mediumaccording to claim 13, wherein to obtain, from the mobile device, thepayment information, the instructions cause the server to generatedisplay screen information for input of the sender and receiverinformation, and for input of the payment information, resulting from aselection of the cost information, and transmitting the display screeninformation to the mobile device to display a screen image to obtain thepayment information.